Parishes, not 'Pope Francis effect,' responsible for almost 400 newcomers to Catholic faith

MOBILE, Alabama – Zach Jarrell’s journey to Catholicism took him from Dayton, Ohio, to Tuscaloosa, Mobile and back to Dayton. At Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night, the University of Alabama sophomore will be confirmed and take communion for the first time – at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Parish in Dayton, near his hometown of Kettering.

“As Easter approaches, I just want to calm myself and reflect upon what it means, so I can celebrate when it comes,” said Jarrell, an engineering major who is attending mass at St. Mary Parish in Mobile while he co-ops at Chevron in Pascagoula, Miss.

This weekend, it’s estimated that almost 400 people from across the Archdiocese of Mobile, encompassing 28 counties in southern Alabama, will come into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The number doesn’t include youngsters raised Catholic and is impressive considering there are only 67,500 Catholics in the archdiocese, officials say. Traditionally, Easter Vigil Mass, held on Saturday evening, is the setting for their entry into the church.

“It’s a bit of an uptick from the past few years,” said Pat Arensberg, director of the Office of Religious Education. “It’s not off the charts. (The number) is generally in the 300’s.”

Much has been written in the press about the so-called “Pope Francis effect,” the popularity of the pope from Argentina elected a year ago to lead the church’s 1.2 billion faithful. Arensberg, though, attributes the increase in membership in south Alabama to the work of rank-and-file Catholics in the parishes.

“Their lives and their witness invite other people to the faith,” he said. “They want to share that good news with people, and their joy bubbles over.”

Pope Francis may have made the faith “more inviting,” he said, but this weekend’s newcomers will have been in faith formation programs since August or September. “That’s too quick” for the new pope to have influenced them individually, he said.

Jarrell’s story backs up this idea. Raised in a Baptist congregation of about 5,000 that was slowly becoming nondenominational, he was introduced to Catholicism through a youth group in Dayton, which he attended with a friend who is now his girlfriend. There, Jarrell learned about the miracles taught in the Catholic faith. “I decided that Catholicism was either the real deal, or it had to be of the devil,” he recalled. “Miracles don’t just happen.”

At Alabama, Jarrell joined the Wesley Foundation, an on-campus Methodist fellowship, and attended the satellite campus of the Church of the Highlands, a mega-church based in Birmingham. “I was still searching for the truth,” he said. “I began praying Proverbs 3:5-6 every night. I just wanted God to lead me to his truth, wherever that may be.” He also started going to a Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Tuscaloosa.

Last year, Jarrell read “Pope Fiction” by Patrick Madrid, which he described as “an incredible book debunking 30 myths about the papacy. “This was the beginning of the end for me,” he said. “Since then, I’ve read about 15 different books about Catholicism, which have shown nothing but its truth.”

He attended his first Mass last November, which was “way different” than what he knew growing up. “It was really weird but also very peaceful,” he said. “I finally accepted the truths of the Catholic Church and its incredibly Biblical Mass.”

When Jarrell arrived in Mobile, he was attracted to the contemporary Mass at St. Mary Parish in Midtown for his time with Chevron, and he began helping with the Teen Life program. “I got to know Msgr. (Warren) Wall very well and knew I had picked the right parish,” he said.

Arensberg said that the newcomers to the archdiocese this year don’t fall into a single category. Some are teenagers; others are families coming in with children. “It’s all over the spectrum,” he said.

On Saturday after sunset, most parishes will begin the Easter Vigil outside, with parishioners lighting candles from the Paschal candle and passing on the flame to each other before entering the Mass. “The symbolism is that the light of the Paschal candle represents Jesus,” Arensberg said.